Have you noticed that we don’t seem to get conventions here in Los Angeles? Why doesn’t NCRA come here? Well, we won’t go into the possible answers for that question. Instead, here you go! August in Los Angeles: It’s probably going to be hot; so some people will be at the beach or in the mountains. It’s late summer; so some …
Compound Noun and Hyphenation
When a compound noun that is two words has a prefix or suffix, hyphenate the prefix to the first word or the suffix to the last word and leave the compound noun as separate words. …pre-high school days for him… …post-Revolutionary War period… …real estate-like transaction… …social security-wide reform… Happy punctuating! Margie
The Word “Please”
The word please takes punctuation according to where it is in relation to what it modifies. At the beginning of what it modifies, it takes no punctuation after it. …Please put that notice into the bulletin. …Please state your name for the record. At the end of what it modifies, it takes a comma before it. …Put that notice into …
To Quote Thoughts or Not?
When someone is “thinking” and saying aloud what that thought might be, if he is using the exact wording he would use when saying it, yes, it should be quoted. …I said to myself, “Wow. I am in trouble now.” …I thought, “How am I going to explain this to him?” …I wondered, “What do I do if this car …
A “Redefining” with “That Is”
Here is a punctuation question from FB that inspired today’s blog: “On examination her lower extremities had normal capillary refill — that is, normal circulation — and no trophic changes, in other words, none of the signs of RSD.” Often people want to redefine or further explain what they have just said. We will deal here with this situation when …
ZIP Codes
The ZIP code does not take any punctuation in front of it. It goes with the element it follows. …Los Angeles, California 90045, is the… …live in Culver City 90230 with… The comma after the ZIP code is because the word “California” has to be surrounded. So you just tuck the ZIP in there with it. Happy punctuating. Margie
Adding “-ish”
As with all standard suffixes, -ish should be added to the word and made a solid word when possible. …sluggish …selfish As with many suffixes, –ish is added to words for which is was never intended, and we are left to wonder just how to make it look. I would say that readability has to be the first consideration. Add …
A Reporter Question
What do I do when it is clear that the witness has left out a word, probably the f-word, in what he said? …so he took it upon himself to say (here’s where he left out the word) “these guys”… I would recommend …so he took it upon himself to say, “…these guys.” I am not sure there is much …
The Skinny on “Past” and “Passed”
Someone on FB asked about these. This is from my new book that is coming out this fall: Word Pares, Pears, Pairs. It will be some 3,000 pairs defined with examples. passed Past tense and past participle of to pass Always part of the verb VB: go by …passed all but one car in the race… VB: distribute …was passed …
More Than an Interruption — the Dash!
Because we see it so frequently, we tend to think of the dash as being synonymous with an interruption. We will be more accurate if we think of the dash as marking a break in the sentence structure, that is, indicating a sentence that got started and just didn’t get finished — for whatever reason. Specifically, let’s look at this …